Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Monday, April 28, 2014

Berkeley-On Monday morning, Siegel and Yee, claiming they represent the Pacifica Foundation despite no evidence of a letter of retention or a vote of the board, are rushing into court to seek an order to send the police to clear out the Pacifica national headquarters. The request, while not yet calendered in Department 15, will supposedly be heard ...between 9 and 9:15am. The request states the Berkeley Police Department, despite numerous entreaties by Wilkinson, has refused to attack without such a court order. Police were last called to Martin Luther King Junior Way in 2008, when unpaid staffer Nadra Foster was declared a "trespasser" by KPFA management and police were called to hog-tie and remove her. Foster's wrist was severely sprained in the melee and she later received a settlement from the Berkeley Police Department.

On Tuesday April 29th, an ad-hoc group called the "Coalition Against The Corporate Takeover of KPFA and Pacifica" plans a press conference and protest in front of Siegel and Yee's offices at 499 14th Street at noon. The group is demanding Siegel's firm "get their conflicted hands off of KPFA and Pacifica" and declares "it is time to call a halt to this wrecking operation."

The request for police intervention attempts to blame the delayed audit on the national office occupation, instead of unreconciled books at the KPFA unit, which is the reason field work scheduled for March will not begin until May. National office accounting staff are currently doing the backed-up reconciliations for KPFA after accounting records the station refused to hand over on March 13th were finally extracted by GM Richard Pirodsky a month later.

An open letter signed by hundreds of the network's staffers and supporters objecting to the breach of Reese's contract can be found here. http://2014.supportkpfa.org/?p=91

Today's specially-called PNB meeting was boycotted by the majority, but allowed discussion on critical matters the majority faction has kept off the agenda for months. Rather than deal with issues, the majority has created chaos with personnel issues and driven off legal counsel. A total of 9 PNB members along with the Executive Director Summer Reese, participated in the meeting. Reese provided this Report From The Executive Director. (http://www.mediafire.com/download/7pe5ga3k5pd6uun/Report+of+the+Executive+Director+April+27+2014.pdf)

The public session included discussion of a process for selecting a new corporate counsel, a 5-year strategic plan for Pacifica, opportunities for increasing Pacifica's membership and donations, plans for stabilizing WBAI, candidate statements for contested national committee seats and a motion regarding conflicts of interest for paid staff on the finance committee. The executive session included corrections to the closed session minutes of February 7-10, 2014 and fixing an unauthorized report-out from an April 17 meeting. Open session audio is currently posted on kpftx.org, and if that audio file is taken down, can also be accessed here (https://soundcloud.com/tracy-rosenberg/sets/april-27th-pacifica-national)

A public town hall at the Berkeley Federation of Unitarian Universalists (BFUU) attracted about 60 people on Sundayafternoon who spoke out on the radio network's crisis. KPFA Local Station Board chair Carole Travis, who spoke on behalf of the board majority said "We were surprised. We didn't think Reese had this much support". The crowd was overwhelmingly in support of the occupation and opposed to the reckless actions of the board. Travis's comment reflected the Save KPFA tendency to personalize issues and understand that Reese's support is not a popularity poll, but a set of beliefs about Pacifica's needs for stable management, fair hiring and firing procedures, and increased financial transparency.

KPFA listener-sponsor Daniel Borgstrom published a report from the last KPFA local station board meeting where he documented the entire public comment session consisted of speakers opposed to the actions of the rogue board majority, despite claims to the contrary by the Save KPFA campaign slate. (http://2014.supportkpfa.org/?p=874)

A Community Advisory Board-sponsored forum at the South Berkeley Senior Center last month was also 90-95% overwhelmingly supportive of Reese.

All 5 Pacifica stations go into fundraising mode in May and Pacifica-In-Exile readers are strongly encouraged to donate to their local stations. If the May 6thpreliminary injunction request is granted, there will be a need to settle out the new lawsuits and labor grievances, meet equipment needs, and repair the havoc of the past few months. All 5 station websites (wbai.org, kpfk.org, wpfw.org, kpft.org, kpfa.org) as well as pacifica.org, can process online donations 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Your support will help to avert a threatened break-up of the network and keep all 5 radio major-market licenses non-commercial and non-corporate for the long run.

Disputed chair Margy Wilkinson is reported to have said with regard to Reese's attempted firing; "it isn't illegal until someone says it is".

Reese has continued to report to work at the national headquarters since March 17th.

###

Started in 1946 by conscientious objector Lew Hill, Pacifica's storied history includes impounded program tapes for a 1954 on-air discussion of marijuana, broadcasting the Seymour Hersh revelations of the My Lai massacre, bombings by the Ku Klux Klan, going to jail rather than turning over the Patty Hearst tapes to the FBI, and Supreme Court cases including the 1984 decision that noncommercial broadcasters have the constitutional right to editorialize, and the Seven Dirty Words ruling following George Carlin's incendiary performances on WBAI. Pacifica Foundation Radio operates noncommercial radio stations in New York, Washington, Houston, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area, and syndicates content to over 180 affiliates. It invented listener-supported radio.

Sunday, April 27, 2014

New Boss Same As The Old Boss and Back To Court Again With Oakland Mayoral Candidate

Berkeley-Disputed IED Bernard Duncan instructed California station manager Richard Pirodsky to transfer $85,000 from Berkeley station KPFA on Monday to assist with network bills. Approximately $40,000 of the transfer is shared services income due from KPFA for the months of March and April and the other $45,000 constitutes an additional levy to support the month-end payrolls at WBAI and WPFW and United Health Care benefits for workers at the Houston, DC and New York stations, as well as the national office, who all use the same benefit package. WPFW was unable to fund their portion of the benefits package at month-end. The funds transfer averts a catastrophic loss of benefits, where SAG/AFTRA has already hauled Pacifica in front of the National Labor Relations Board for April staff changes at WPFW claimed to be in violation of the bargaining unit's contract.

KPFA's financial statements, when mathematical errors were corrected, showed a $50,000 loss at the end of January and an immediate post-fund-drive surplus of $93,000 at the end of February. The station will be starting its May fund drive effort in a week and a half from a tight cash flow position. Monthly operating expenses are $240,000. The budgetary goal for the May fund drive was set at $745,000. The two previous fund drives topped out at $690,000 in October and $643,000 in February.

The law firm of Siegel and Yee, headed up by Oakland mayoral candidate Dan Siegel, engaged in a flurry of legal activity on behalf of the rogue board majority today. The board is hauling Pacifica into court Monday morning to try to get Judge Petrou to issue the board majority a temporary restraining order. According to their filing, the Berkeley Police Department refused to accede to a request to assist with a forcible removal from the national office of the foundation's executive director without a restraining order issued by Alameda Superior Court. The filing contains notable falsities including an assertion that the annual audit was delayed by the national office occupation, rather than by KPFA's inability to provide reconciled books, as emails between the national office and auditing firm Armanino Mckenna published in PIE demonstrated. There is a similarly bizarre assertion that Pacifica cannot process donations due to the occupation of the national office, although all 5 stations have processed hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations since March 17th, including a network-wide national fundraiser for the Pacifica Archives on April 15th. So despite Siegel and Yee's assertions, interstate commerce appears to be unimpeded.

Siegel's firm was apparently retained by the rogue board majority during a secret conference call by half the board on April 14th on a number they refused to give to 45% of the board. The rogue majority reported that they discussed "conflicts of interest" during the illegal meeting. Siegel and Yee also filed a response to the PDGG vs Pacifica board of directors lawsuit. Siegel and Yee assert Ms, Reese was in fact never hired as the permanent executive director of the Pacifica Foundation (it is unclear why the board acted to fire Reese in March if they believe the previous board did not hire her). The filing also asserts that the PDGG board members may not sue the foundation due to lack of standing, a very odd claim since Siegel himself sued the foundation as a board member and his firm has represented Pacifica board members suing the foundation numerous times in the past 15 years.

Siegel and his firm made a third filing, countersuing Reese specifically for monetary damages of an unspecified amount for continuing to abide by her employment contract after the board breached it.

The 9 PDGG directors have called a special board meeting for April 27th to address falsified minutes and the on-going lack of corporate counsel, but are not sure their colleagues in the majority will attend the meeting. The amended PDGG vs. Pacifica complaint can be found here in a 137-page full complaint and a 24-page Memorandum of Points and Authorities.

A public town hall meeting is being held in Berkeley by the local Unitarian congregation the same day. The Sunday afternoon forum will be from 2pm-4pm on April 27th at the Berkeley Federation of Unitarian Universalists 1924 Cedar Street in North Berkeley. More information about the event is available here. A video archive should be available after the event.

All 5 Pacifica stations go into fundraising mode in May and Pacifica-In-Exile readers are strongly encouraged to donate to their local stations. If the May 6th preliminary injunction request is granted, there will be a need to settle out the new lawsuits and labor grievances, meet equipment needs, and repair the havoc of the past few months. All 5 station websites (wbai.org, kpfk.org, wpfw.org, kpft.org, kpfa.org) as well as pacifica.org, can process online donations 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Your support will help to avert a threatened break-up of the network and keep all 5 radio major-market licenses non-commercial and non-corporate for the long run.

In Reese's 20 months in the ED position, Pacifica reduced litigation by 70% and had only one new lawsuit filed (a dispute between members of the DC local station board who sued each other.) Members of the current board majority are both plaintiffs (Benito Diaz) and defendants (Tony Norman) in that lawsuit. In the 5 weeks since the attempted termination, the Wilkinson/Duncan acting/interim combo and the 2014 board majority has acquired three new lawsuits and an NLRB action.

A complaint filed by 8 former national board members with the CA Attorney General can be found here.

A satirical look at the chaos at the radio stations and what the future holds amid rumors of a network breakup by the Twit Wits comedy troupe (produced by noted theatrical producer George Coates) can be found here.

A March 31st interview with Reese at the occupied Pacifica national headquarters can be viewed here.

KPFA local station board member and Oakland community activist Samsarah Morgan sized up the situation here.

Disputed chair Margy Wilkinson is reported to have said with regard to Reese's attempted firing; "it isn't illegal until someone says it is".

Reese has continued to report to work at the national headquarters since March 17th.

###

Started in 1946 by conscientious objector Lew Hill, Pacifica's storied history includes impounded program tapes for a 1954 on-air discussion of marijuana, broadcasting the Seymour Hersh revelations of the My Lai massacre, bombings by the Ku Klux Klan, going to jail rather than turning over the Patty Hearst tapes to the FBI, and Supreme Court cases including the 1984 decision that noncommercial broadcasters have the constitutional right to editorialize, and the Seven Dirty Words ruling following George Carlin's incendiary performances on WBAI. Pacifica Foundation Radio operates noncommercial radio stations in New York, Washington, Houston, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area, and syndicates content to over 180 affiliates. It invented listener-supported radio.

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Berkeley-SAG/AFTRA has filed a complaint at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against Pacifica Radio, for unilateral contract modifications and bargaining in bad faith with the union local at WPFW-FM in Washington DC. Acting/interim/disputed chair Margy Wilkinson approved the seeming contract violations at an April staff meeting when presented by WPFW's general manager Michele Price. The complaint report can be seen here.

The full board of directors has not been notified of the grievance more than two weeks after it was filed at the National Labor Relations Board. One of the conditions attached to Summer Reese's contract as executive director was that the board be informed of all pending litigation and grievances *immediately*. Wilkinson has also continued to hold privately the workplace investigation report Pacifica ordered to address hostile workplace complaints filed against the recently rehired CFO.

Temporary/interim ED Bernard Duncan has not returned from Los Angeles to the Berkeley headquarters after falling ill 3 days into his first week of employment.

An open letter signed by hundreds of the network's staffers and supporters objecting to the breach of Reese's contract can be found here.

Pacifica's financial situation continues to be extremely perilous, driven largely by severe cash shortfalls at the local stations. DC station WPFW is down to $4,000 in its operating account with no clear way to pay the end of the month payroll and WBAI has about $250,000 in unpaid bills piled up. KPFT in Houston faces a March 27th deadline to get up to full power after 4 FCC extensions. Station managers are improvising without clear guidance from national about how to meet their obligations without enough cash on hand. Slow progress is being made on the overdue bank reconcilations at KPFA, but recent financial reports presented by the local board treasurer at the last two local board meetings both contained math errors and overstated earnings. The new audit completion date is anticipated to be no sooner than the end of June.

The PDGG directors have called a special meeting for April 27th to address falsified minutes and the on-going lack of corporate counsel, but are not sure their colleagues in the majority will attend the meeting. The amended PDGG vs. Pacifica complaint can be found here in a 137-page full complaint and a 24-page Memorandum of Points and Authorities.

A complaint filed by 8 former national board members with the CA Attorney General can be found here.

A satirical look at the chaos at the radio stations and what the future holds amid rumors of a network breakup by the Twit Wits comedy troupe (produced by noted theatrical producer George Coates) can be found here.

Disputed chair Margy Wilkinson is reported to have said with regard to Reese's attempted firing; "it isn't illegal until someone says it is". The explanation of how Wilkinson assumed the chair seat on the basis of a mis-marked ballot can be heard here.

Reese has continued to report to work at the national headquarters since March 17th.

Daniel Borgstrom who accompanied Reese on her St. Patrick's Day return to work, wrote about his experiences here.

###

Started in 1946 by conscientious objector Lew Hill, Pacifica's storied history includes impounded program tapes for a 1954 on-air discussion of marijuana, broadcasting the Seymour Hersh revelations of the My Lai massacre, bombings by the Ku Klux Klan, going to jail rather than turning over the Patty Hearst tapes to the FBI, and Supreme Court cases including the 1984 decision that noncommercial broadcasters have the constitutional right to editorialize, and the Seven Dirty Words ruling following George Carlin's incendiary performances on WBAI. Pacifica Foundation Radio operates noncommercial radio stations in New York, Washington, Houston, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area, and syndicates content to over 180 affiliates. It invented listener-supported radio.

Thursday, April 17, 2014

It is with profound sorrow that we announce the death of Robert Knight, Senior Correspondent, Investigative Reporter, Host and Producer of Earthwatch and the Five O'Clock Shadow on WBAI, Pacifica Radio in New York on Wednesday, 16 April 2014, in the Bronx. He succumbed to complications following treatment for an illness.

Robert Knight

September 6, 1949 – April 16, 2014

Robert Knight was the anchor of the daily “Five O’Clock Shadow” investigative newsmagazine, and host of the weekly free-form radio series “Earthwatch: Transterrestrial Radio with Robert Knight”on New York Pacifica station WBAI-FM. He was a former correspondent for Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show”, the Public News Service, where his reports have been heard on hundreds of public, commercial and community radio stations. He anchored Pacifica’s nationally syndicated investigative news program “Flashpoints,” its national election series “Informed Dissent” and Pacifica Radio’s live bicoastal coverage of President Obama’s Afghanistan War speech at West Point. He was also a regular WBAI News contributor and occasional host of “Wake Up Call”.

Most recently, Knight produced the two-hour investigative historical documentary, “The Sweet Science of Racism in Haiti,” one of WBAI’s most popular locally-produced public affairs premiums.

Along with Dennis Bernstein, Knight was a cofounder of the groundbreaking investigative news series “Contragate” (later renamed “Undercurrents”) – which provided daily exposés of the clandestine and military operations surrounding the wars in Central America and elsewhere. He also served as WBAI’s News Director, “Wake Up Call” morning show host, and as a successful fundraising copywriter for the station. Knight served as a correspondent for Pacifica National News, Free Speech Radio and National Public Radio, and been broadcast on WNYC, WLIB, KPFA, WEVD, WABC, WAMC, and WMCA, among other stations.

As an international correspondent, Knight traveled to five continents, reporting from such hot spots as Nicaragua (where he covered the contra war), Colombia (where he reported to the international drug complex), Libya (where he visited the home of Muammar Khadafy), North and South Korea (where he covered nuclear and reunification issues), and Panama – where his interviews with Manuel Noriega and coverage of the 1989 US invasion earned him the prestigious George R. Polk Award.

In addition to the Polk Award, Knight’s work also won the Jesse Meriton White Award for International Reporting, the Ethical Culture ‘Man of the Year’ Peace Award, the “Madre Padre” Award (presented to “a few good men” by MADRE, the international feminist human rights organization), the Humanist Journalism Award (presented by the Rev. Joseph Ben-David, a colleague of Hannah Arendt), the News Reporting Award presented by Asian-Americans for Equality, and the National Association of Black Journalists’ Radio Reporting Award for his documentary series on covert activities in apartheid South Africa.

Knight’s domestic reportage includes travels to Tulia, Texas, where he covered the false arrests of most of the town’s African American population on fabricated drug charges, and to Albany, New York, where his reporting contributed to reform of the draconian Rockefeller Drug Laws.

Knight also made television appearances, including “Like It Is”, with Gil Noble and “Tony Brown’s Journal.” and news anchoring on “International News Net”. He hosted a televised town hall discussion with the Rev. Al Sharpton at the Schomberg Center for Research into African Culture. He was also interviewed by Harold Channer on “Conversations with Harold H. Channer”

His writing has been published in Esquire, Essence, New York Magazine, SPY, SPIN, Newsday. The New York Daily News, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Baltimore Sun, The Guardian, and the Premiere Edition of Civil Rights Journal, published by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights – among others.

The preliminary injunction request, which will be heard on May 6th in Judge Petrou's courtroom, asks for the breach of executive director Summer Reese's contract to end, for the court to declare the Chief Financial Officer position vacant and subject to an open hire process, and enjoin the board participation of three officers and board members Fuentes and Lamb, for violations of the corporations code, the Pacifica bylaws, EEOC and labor law.

The Pacifica National Board has not yet retained an attorney for the foundation after former counsel Terry Gross resigned on March 27th. Only one of the 12 defendant directors has retained individual counsel, Margy Wilkinson, who hired Alan Yee, the law partner of Dan Siegel and employer of current board member Jose-Luis Fuentes. The board has outstanding litigation in Washington DC - Ball vs. Hughes - and ongoing needs for legal advice on personnel and real estate matters, as well as broadcast law and regulation.

An open letter signed by hundreds of the network's staffers and supporters objecting to the breach of Reese's contract can be found here .http://2014.supportkpfa.org/?p=91

The interim executive director appointed by the rogue board majority, former KPFK general manager Bernard Duncan, appeared on-air during the birthday festivities. Duncan mentions that he had been hired for "a few months because he knows what's going on". A few minutes later, he states that he "needs to figure out what is going on." The full interview can be heard here. http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/101941

The rogue board has still not released minutes from any open session meeting all year and has not released closed session minutes from meetings on February 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th and 20th, March 6th and 27th, or April 3rd. The fiscal 2013 audit has been delayed for more than 7 months after the end of the fiscal year. $1.5 million dollars in Corporation for Public Broadcasting Funding is being held back. Houston station KPFT's license expired in August of 2013. WBAI's license expires in June of 2014.

The next board meeting is Thursday night, April 17th at 5:30 pacific.

A satirical look at the chaos at the radio stations and what the future holds amid rumors of a network breakup by the Twit Wits comedy troupe (produced by noted theatrical producer George Coates) can be found here.

Disputed chair Margy Wilkinson is reported to have said with regard to Reese's attempted firing; "it isn't illegal until someone says it is".

Reese has continued to report to work at the national headquarters since March 17th.

###

Started in 1946 by conscientious objector Lew Hill, Pacifica's storied history includes impounded program tapes for a 1954 on-air discussion of marijuana, broadcasting the Seymour Hersh revelations of the My Lai massacre, bombings by the Ku Klux Klan, going to jail rather than turning over the Patty Hearst tapes to the FBI, and Supreme Court cases including the 1984 decision that noncommercial broadcasters have the constitutional right to editorialize, and the Seven Dirty Words ruling following George Carlin's incendiary performances on WBAI. Pacifica Foundation Radio operates noncommercial radio stations in New York, Washington, Houston, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area, and syndicates content to over 180 affiliates. It invented listener-supported radio.

Brecht Forum was going to be sharing space with WBAI at 388 Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn.

Note: For all who are interested, Brecht Forum will hold a public meeting this Wednesday 4/16 7:30 pm at the Brooklyn Commons to discuss the decision to close and begin a dialog about how the project may move forward in a different form.

Sunday, April 13, 2014

Carol Spooner: Statement on Current Crisis and the Future of Pacifica

I strongly support Summer Reese in her position as Executive Director of Pacifica and in her efforts to preserve and protect the network and five Pacifica stations and their mission, and to prevent the total collapse of Pacifica into bankruptcy court, pay-off its debts, clean-up the corruption and financial mess, and rebuild.

Carol Spooner

I believe those Pacifica directors who voted to fire her without cause weeks after her contract was signed acted with gross abuse of their authority and have recklessly and/or intentionally placed Pacifica in grave peril. Some of them may just be acting out of cluelessness and factional malice. But others of them are not clueless, including Dan Siegel’s “SaveKPFA” allies at KPFA — Margy Wilkinson, Brian Edwards-Tiekert and Jose Luis Fuentes — and Lydia Brazon at KPFK and Cerene Roberts at WBAI. I’ve heard speculation and rumors about what their ultimate “end game” intentions may be, but whatever that is they are clearly attempting to force Pacifica into a position where desperate deals may have to be made that may not preserve and protect Pacifica’s mission.It is true that in August 2012 I circulated the outlines of a plan for an “amicable divorce” at Pacifica — by doing a signal swap for WBAI (which is in the commercial band) with another station down the dial in the NYC area and using the cash generated to endow an independent Pacifica national programming service as well as five independent nonprofit radio stations set up by the local boards at the five signal areas. You can read ithere:I still think that may be the best way forward, but reasonable people can disagree about that. I know that Summer Reese disagrees.

Reasonable . . . Unreasonable

What is not subject to reasonable disagreement is that firing the Executive Director, in breach of her contract, exposes Pacifica to serious risk of total collapse with little or no opportunity for an orderly resolution to its difficulties. As a side note, it’s easy to get lost in the cast of characters who have been involved in Pacifica, so I don’t blame Eric Jacobson for his confusion and mistaken characterizations of me and my role at Pacifica in his article here. I served on the Pacifica National Board for 3 years — from January 2002 through January 2005 — first on the “interim” Pacifica Board for 2 years after our lawsuit was settled removing the old corporatizing board. During that time I chaired the committee that re-wrote the bylaws creating a democratic Pacifica with a voting membership. I then served for one year on the first elected board, after which I retired from any formal role at Pacifica.Since then I’ve sent out occasional email commentaries over the years, and have supported those candidates who I believed were best suited to ending the enervating factionalism and rebuilding Pacifica for the “beacon of the Left” that it should be and needs to be in these times.Carol Spooner is a retired attorney living in Santa Rosa. She can be reached at wildrose@pon.net

Saturday, April 12, 2014

Berkeley-Pacifica board member Jose-Luis Fuentes responded to an attorney's letter asking the board to ease up on pressuring and threatening employees by saying "interlopers will not be tolerated". Fuentes previously attempted to have Pacifica payroll processing data illegitimately sent to his employer, the law firm Siegel and Yee, on March 28th.

Southern California attorney James De Maegt wrote on behalf of 8 network employees describing them as caught in the middle of a dispute and asked members of the board to allow them to perform their jobs without undue interference and for members to cease and desist from berating, bullying and harassing employees. De Maegt's letter stated "Repeated demands to perform actions which employees have stated appear to them to be contradictory to the law and inappropriate must cease until the matters in question are heard by a higher authority"

Fuentes' response is below. The full exchange with the complete text of the letter can be found here. (http://www.mediafire.com/download/ksbn5cfii0h4e5o/Interlopers.doc). PIE is not releasing the names of the affected employees to protect their privacy. It's not clear what contracts Fuentes was referring below to inducing breaches in. The employees in question are non-union at-will employees.

KPFA's local station board meeting will be meeting on Saturday April 12th at the North Berkeley Senior Center at Hearst and Martin Luther King Jr Way in Berkeley. Public comment will begin promptly at 11:00am. Jose-Luis Fuentes and disputed board chair/IED Margy Wilkinson are expected to be in attendance.

Yesterday, PIE printed an email from board member Lydia Brazon to former CFO Raul Salvador written on January 6, 2014, 4 days after Salvador was not offered permanent employment by the 2013 board of directors after completing a troubled probationary period. Brazon told Salvador to mislead the executive director as to his whereabouts and assured him he would be rehired, although delegates had not yet elected members to the 2014 board. Brazon's email can be found here (http://www.mediafire.com/download/ngc2z3j4k12i3h8/brazon+email.pdf).

Today former WNAI director Nia Bediako, a member of the Justice and Unity Caucus/Save KPFA faction that breached Reese's contract, threatened PIE with federal prosecution for distributing Brazon's email to the network's members.

"I don't know how "Pacifica In Exile" got Director Lydia Brazon's email but I'd like to bring to your attention: The Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) [18 U.S.C. Sections 250-2521, 2701-2710], which was signed into law in 1986, amended the Federal Wiretap Act to account for the increasing amount of communications and data transferred and stored on computer systems. The ECPA protects against the unlawful interceptions of any wire communications--whether it's telephone or cell phone conversations, voicemail, email, and other data sent over the wires. The ECPA also includes protections for messages that are stored--email messages that are archived on servers, for instance. Now, under the law, unauthorized access to computer messages, whether in transit or in storage, is A FEDERAL CRIME".

(Largeness and redness provided by Ms. Bediako).

An open letter signed by hundreds of the network's staffers and supporters objecting to the breach of Reese's contract can be found here. (http://2014.supportkpfa.org/?p=91)

Los Angeles public interest attorney Eric Jacobson wrote this detailed piece on the crisis precipitated by the abrupt attempted firing of Reese 6 weeks into the 2014 board's term. (http://2014.supportkpfa.org/?p=543).

"Losing" candidate George Reiter, a physics professor at UT-Houston, can be heard explaining the customary procedure on one of the longer clips.

"If the first place votes are a tie, then we count the second place votes. If the second place votes are tied, then we flip a coin".

Except they didn't.

The rogue board has still not released minutes from any open session meeting all year and has not released closed session minutes from meetings on February 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th and 20th, March 6th and 27th, or April 3rd. The fiscal 2013 audit has been delayed for more than 7 months after the end of the fiscal year. $1.5 million dollars in Corporation for Public Broadcasting Funding is being held back. Houston station KPFT's license expired in August of 2013. WBAI's license expires in June of 2014.

Disputed chair Margy Wilkinson is reported to have said with regard to Reese's attempted firing; "it isn't illegal until someone says it is".

Reese has continued to report to work at the national headquarters since March 17th.

###

Started in 1946 by conscientious objector Lew Hill, Pacifica's storied history includes impounded program tapes for a 1954 on-air discussion of marijuana, broadcasting the Seymour Hersh revelations of the My Lai massacre, bombings by the Ku Klux Klan, going to jail rather than turning over the Patty Hearst tapes to the FBI, and Supreme Court cases including the 1984 decision that noncommercial broadcasters have the constitutional right to editorialize, and the Seven Dirty Words ruling following George Carlin's incendiary performances on WBAI. Pacifica Foundation Radio operates noncommercial radio stations in New York, Washington, Houston, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area, and syndicates content to over 180 affiliates. It invented listener-supported radio.

The above-named employees of Pacifica Foundation Radio are caught in the middle of a dispute between members of the Board of Directors of Pacifica Foundation Radio which is currently being litigated in Alameda Superior Court in Case # HG14720131. A hearing on a preliminary injunction against 12 members of the Board of Directors has been set for May 6, 2014.

Until this hearing proceeds, the legality of several recent actions by the Board of Directors is in question and many documents required to assess the veracity of statements by some members of the Board are missing and unavailable.

In this situation, a hostile workplace environment has been created in which members of the Board of Directors and senior employees, who may or may not have been hired legally, repeatedly berate, bully and threaten subordinate employees to take potentially illegal and irreversible actions in an atmosphere of uncertainty.

Under Pacifica Foundation organizational rules the employees cited above are not directly supervised by the Board of Directors. The current legal dispute between members of the Board of Directors has brought great confusion to the employees regarding the present chain of command and the authenticity and powers and responsibilities of each of the alleged supervisors in Pacifica Foundation and many employees do not know for certain who their direct supervisors currently are and what their powers and responsibilities are. Since the case is now in court the employees do not expect to have that clarified until the injunction request is heard on May 6th.

All members of the Pacifica Foundation Radio Board of Directors and the two employees named above whose status is legally disputed by 41% of the board, must be instructed to cease and desist threatening the above-mentioned employees starting now and until the May 6th date for a hearing on a preliminary injunction.

The employees of Pacifica must be allowed to perform their jobs in their customary fashion without undue interference from the above-mentioned parties. Repeated demands to perform actions which the employees have stated appear to them to be contradictory to the law and inappropriate must cease until the matters in question are heard by a higher authority.

The employees wish to serve the best interests of Pacifica Foundation Radio going forward and hope the Board of Directors will resolve their conflicts in a court of law as soon as possible.

Thank you for your attention to this matter. I look forward to a prompt response on this issue.

Berkeley-Confusion reigned at the national Pacifica Radio network when board member Hank Lamb from Houston (one of the 12 directors being sued for breaching the executive director's contract) sent a muddled email to network employees.

Lamb's April 10th email assured staff the "legal" executive director was *not* Bernard Duncan, but was instead alleg...ed chair of the board, Margy Wilkinson. Lamb's email stated; "Until a court says otherwise, if they ever do, you are an employee of the Foundation and there is a direct heirarchy {sic} to be followed. You follow the bylaws and job description and wants and needs of the iED, Margy Wilkinson. She is the legal IED".

Whether Lamb was unaware of the decision to hire Duncan (who supposedly started on April 7th) or was communicating Duncan is to be removed from the position of interim executive director after 3 days, is unclear. Lamb's entire email can be found here. http://www.mediafire.com/download/jbi8s74r6gaxg6d/Lamb+Email.pdf. Duncan has been sending repeated emails and making numerous phone calls to staff asserting he is the interim executive director.

Lamb had previously penned emails suggesting that employees who filed harassment complaints should be "dealt with" and does not appear to understand it is illegal to retaliate against employees for filing workplace grievances.

Meanwhile, as national staffers work to cover payroll shortfalls at at least 2 of the network's 7 divisons, board member Jose Luis Fuentes sent emails offering to immediately replace any employee who does not want to work under the "new management". Fuentes, who attempted at the end of March to have Pacifica payroll data routed through the office of his employer, Oakland law firm Siegel and Yee, ( see http://www.mediafire.com/download/a5c2esgh7be66ob/Paychex+letter+3-28-14.pdf) does not have supervisory or hire/fire capacity over any network employees. The firm's partner Alan Yee represented disputed board chair/IED Wilkinson as her personal lawyer at Wednesday's Alameda Superior Court hearing. Partner Dan Siegel co-wrote the November 11th offer letter to Reese for 3 years of employment.

Los Angeles public interest attorney Eric Jacobson wrote this detailed piece on the crisis precipitated by the abrupt attempted firing of Reese 6 weeks into the 2014 board's term. http://2014.supportkpfa.org/?p=543

"If the first place votes are a tie, then we count the second place votes. If the second place votes are tied, then we flip a coin".

Except they didn't.

The rogue board has still not released minutes from any open session meeting all year and has not released closed session minutes from meetings onFebruary 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th and 20th, March 6th and 27th, or April 3rd. The fiscal 2013 audit has been delayed for more than 7 months after the end of the fiscal year. $1.5 million dollars in Corporation for Public Broadcasting Funding is being held back. Houston station KPFT's license expired in August of 2013. WBAI's license expires in June of 2014.

KPFK staffers have requested the opportunity to vote on whether to recall their staff representative on the national board, Rodrigo Argueta. Their petition alleging "hasty and reckless actions taken with no consultation with those he claims to represent" can be found here http://www.mediafire.com/download/52g63jf3vwoz2xd/Argueta+Recall.pdf.

Disputed chair Margy Wilkinson is reported to have said with regard to Reese's attempted firing; "it isn't illegal until someone says it is".

Reese has continued to report to work at the national headquarters since March 17th.

###

Started in 1946 by conscientious objector Lew Hill, Pacifica's storied history includes impounded program tapes for a 1954 on-air discussion of marijuana, broadcasting the Seymour Hersh revelations of the My Lai massacre, bombings by the Ku Klux Klan, going to jail rather than turning over the Patty Hearst tapes to the FBI, and Supreme Court cases including the 1984 decision that noncommercial broadcasters have the constitutional right to editorialize, and the Seven Dirty Words ruling following George Carlin's incendiary performances on WBAI. Pacifica Foundation Radio operates noncommercial radio stations in New York, Washington, Houston, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area, and syndicates content to over 180 affiliates. It invented listener-supported radio.

Is the Pacifica Foundation Board Trying to Dissolve the Foundation’s Five Station Union, Place Each Station’s Broadcast License under Local Ownership, Sell WBAI into the Commercial Marketplace and Distribute the Proceeds as "Endowments" to the Remaining 4 Stations?

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

KPFK's part in some of this too with excerpts of this reporting also at http://la.indymedia.org/news/2014/04/263683.php. The question of did Bernard Duncan leave KPFK as gen'l mgr early to be placed as a contender to Pacifica's ED or as interim to move up his ladder ? Did the KPFA gen'l mgr who took over Duncan's early exit and maybe aid his disloyalty to KPFK [was he planning to abandon KPFK as early as he did ? ] was KPFA guy in on the plans to place Duncan on the next throne ? What collusions occurred that Los Angeles member subscribers payers did NOT know ? What confusion and secrecy and how has it been closely held by a few for so long ? or was it spontaneous combustion ?

Pacifica is in broken shape, in at least two separate pieces: The Executive Dire...ctorship is allocated to 2 people by at least 2 groups. One is Summer Reese, [ a long time PNB chair and member, and she was contractually hired after many months working as interim ED ] and the other is Bernard Duncan,…

Berkeley-Today's hearing at Department 15 of Alameda Superior Court booted the referendum on the breaching of the executive director's contract into May. A procedural requirement to individually serve 12 defendants in 5 different cities (including one with no established place of residence) was virtually impossible in the abbreviated time frame between the filing on April 3rd and the hearing on the morning of April 9th. The judge indicated an inclination to grant the requested injunction and set out an expedited schedule to get the matter back into the courtroom as soon as possible. The timeline shift from a TRO to a preliminary injunction extends the on-going chaos for another month, with unclear lines of authority and dueling national offices (one set up on the 2nd floor inside of KPFA). Siegel and Yee partner Alan Yee appeared solely representing disputed board chair Margy Wilkinson. Yee's employee Jose Luis Fuentes is the author of the motion to fire Reese. The Pacifica Foundation and the 11 remaining defendants had no legal representation.
An open letter to the Board objecting to the breach of the Executive Director's contract signed by hundreds of staffers, volunteers and listeners across the country can be found herehttp://2014.supportkpfa.org/?p=91

LA Board member Lydia Brazon, one of the defendants, engaged in private correspondence with former CFO Raul Salvador, who was let go on January 2, 2014. Only 4 days after the board decision, Brazon assured Salvador on January 6th he would be re-hired, doing so prior to the election of new board members. Here is Brazon's email of January 6th, 2014

I rec'd your call, I hadn't notice {sic} this email but want to make sure you get your full pay just in case... If you're in L.A., you can say you were in L.A. for the wknd but given her {Summer Reese's} email, you see no immediate need to return to Berkeley so you will turn in the Pacifica equipment to KPFK.

Of course, I believe you'll get them back soon but wouldn't want to advise you jeopardize your continued salary.

lydia

**

Oakland law firm Siegel and Yee attempted on March 28th to route Pacifica's payroll processing through their office, asking Pacifica's payroll administration company to contact "their office" for instructions. The law firm's attempt to take over Pacifica's internal operations was rejected by the vendor, which forwarded the correspondence to national office staff at 1925 Berkeley Way. The accompanying email is below and the letter on Siegel and Yee letterhead can be found here. http://www.mediafire.com/download/a5c2esgh7be66ob/Paychex+letter+3-28-14.pdf. It is not clear if the partners at Fuente's firm, Alan Yee, former Oakland City Council member Jane Brunner, and Oakland mayoral candidate Dan Siegel, gave Fuentes permission to misrespresent Siegel and Yee as Pacifica's attorneys.

Dan Siegel represented the Pacifica Foundation in the mid-2000's during multiple employee sexual harassment complaints against KPFK manager Eva Georgia. Siegel represented both Pacifica itself and Georgia personally in the two suits, one by news reporter Mollie Paige, and after settling both,, ascended to the interim executive director position. He then negotiated Georgia's generous severance package with his former client. His firm Siegel and Yee, then billed Pacifica for several hundred thousand in legal fees. It is expected the entire mess cost listener-sponsors in excess of $750,000.

Siegel then did a repeat turn as corporate counsel/interim executive director in 2007-2008, and in March of 2008, fired national election supervisor Casey Peters and named himself as his replacement, thus filling all 3 positions simultaneously. In 2009, Siegel ran for the local KPFA board and testified against Pacifica under oath that former CFO Hicks was victimized by racist attitudes resulting in a $440,000 settlement. Siegel resigned from the Pacifica board on January 9, 2014 to run for the mayor of Oakland. He is currently polling at 6%, according to a late February poll.

The rogue board has still not released minutes from any open session meeting all year and has not released closed session minutes from February 7, 8, 9, 10 and 20 March 6, and 27, or April 3. The fiscal 2013 audit has been delayed for more than 7 months after the end of the fiscal year. $1.5 million dollars in Corporation for Public Broadcasting Funding is being held back. Houston station KPFT's license expired in August of 2013. WBAI's license expires in June of 2014.

KPFK staffers have requested the opportunity to vote on whether to recall their staff representative on the national board, Rodrigo Argueta. Their petition alleging "hasty and reckless actions taken with no consultation with those he claims to represent" can be found here http://www.mediafire.com/download/52g63jf3vwoz2xd/Argueta+Recall.pdf

Disputed chair Margy Wilkinson is reported to have said with regard to Reese's attempted firing; "it isn't illegal until someone says it is".

Reese has continued to report to work at the national headquarters since March 17th.

###

Started in 1946 by conscientious objector Lew Hill, Pacifica's storied history includes impounded program tapes for a 1954 on-air discussion of marijuana, broadcasting the Seymour Hersh revelations of the My Lai massacre, bombings by the Ku Klux Klan, going to jail rather than turning over the Patty Hearst tapes to the FBI, and Supreme Court cases including the 1984 decision that noncommercial broadcasters have the constitutional right to editorialize, and the Seven Dirty Words ruling following George Carlin's incendiary performances on WBAI. Pacifica Foundation Radio operates noncommercial radio stations in New York, Washington, Houston, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area, and syndicates content to over 180 affiliates. It invented listener-supported radio.

UPDATE 4/9/14 @10:05 am: The national board minority's attempt to get a Temporary Restraining Order to allow Summer Reese to keep her job has been denied by the Alameda County Superior Court. The Next Court Date is May 6.

A report from an eyewitness at this morning's hearing:

"Here's what I understood. The TRO was denied for for today. A preliminary injunction hearing date was set for May 6. Intermediate dates are as follows: April 15 is the deadline for everyone to be served. Summons for service won't be electronic, per Margy's lawyers request, but everything else between the parties can be done by e-mail. April 23 is the deadline for opposition papers to be filed. April 30 is the deadline for our reply.

The judge said that had there not been a procedural issue, plus some content issue, her inclination would have been to grant the injunction. However, she strongly cautioned that anything she did today would not be on the merits of the final case.

The procedural issue was related to the fact that the side asking for the TRO filed against the directors as individuals in their capacity as directors. We needed to ask for the TRO against just individuals, not in their capacity as directors. As directors they have immunity from the TRO unless some other procedural step is taken.

The judge left it open to return to court before May 6 if an emergency action needs to be taken by the court".

Please Support Andrea Sears' Reporting

Unemployment insurance is running out for Andrea Sears of Left Voices, former WBAI/Pacifica News Editor, who was part of the WBAI staff layoffs last August. Despite some promising interviews, Andrea does not have a job yet, and would really appreciate your support.